One of the two initial elements the player can access, as Cloud comes equipped with two elemental Materia. It is the eponymous element of Ice spells. Shiva is its summon and is the first elemental summon available. Kujata and Typhoon also make use of it.

One of the two initial elements the player can access, as Cloud comes equipped with two elemental Materia. Its standard spell line is Bolt and its summon is Ramuh. Kujata and Typhoon also make use of it.

Lightning tends to work well against machines and aquatic enemies, making it quite useful for the proliferation of machines in particular in the early game.

The first element newly accessible after leaving Midgar. Final Fantasy VII expanded Quake into a full line of damage spells, unlike the rest of the franchise. Titan is the summon representative. Typhoon also uses it in its attack.

Earth most notably misses against flying enemies, and due to the mechanics of the elemental system, so will any multi-elemental attack with Earth as a component.

Quake spells hit the hardest of all standard elemental spells.

Earth can be guarded with the Escort Guard, which can only be worn by men, and Tetra Elemental, which also guards against Fire, Ice, and Lightning.

Unlike other elements, Wind lacks a standard spell line in Final Fantasy VII. Wind is inaccessible until the Choco/Mog and Elemental Materia are both obtained. Choco/Mog's Materia is classified as Wind elemental, even though both its attacks are non-elemental. Typhoon likewise is a Wind-elemental Materia despite the attack doing Fire/Ice/Lightning/Earth damage.

The only Wind-elemental spell accessible to the player is Tornado late in the game. While Aero3 appears as an enemy ability, the Aero line does not properly exist within the game.

Wind proves effective against many flying enemies. Adding it to a Long Range attack can be useful for certain enemies.

Like Wind, Water lacks a proper spell line in Final Fantasy VII. However, it does have its own summon, Leviathan. The powerful Enemy Skill Aqualung provides reliable access to Water damage once gained.

The last element obtainable before leaving Midgar. It is closely linked with the Poison status. Unlike other entries in the series, Final Fantasy VII has turned Bio into a full line of spells. While there is no dedicated summon, Hades inflicts various status including Poison.

Poison damage and the Poison status are interlinked. If unit is immune to Poison damage, it cannot be inflicted with Poison status, even if it has no resistance. If a unit is immune to Poison status, it is also immune to Poison damage. Enemies healed by Poison gain a Regen-like healing from Poison status, which can also be exploited by the player using appropriate protections. This can allow a party to stack Poison with Regen for fast sustained healing.

Bio is useful for its ability to both inflict Poison and because it does more damage than Fire, Ice, or Bolt, though less than Quake.

Because of the story importance of Holy, the Holy ability is not available to the player. The only means of inflicting Holy damage in the game is Alexander, and there are no Holy enemy abilities.

The Minerva Band defends against the Holy element, but can only be worn by women. However, the only time this would come into play is if the player or a confused character turned a Holy attack onto the party.

Gravity lends its element to the Demi line of spells for the first time, expanding it to three tiers. Unlike most standard spells, it deals damage based on current HP, as well as enemy resistance. This means that an enemy weak (double damage) to Gravity can be immediately killed with Demi2.

Gravity is notoriously ineffective against bosses, but tends to be effective against flying or otherwise airborne enemies.

The Minerva Band can defend against Gravity, but as the only means of receiving Gravity damage from enemies are the Demi line and Enemy Skill Laser, and very few enemies cast these, the concern is limited.

A special curative element, it is unique among the magical elements in that no Materia has it as an element, including Restore. Using Restorative spells against Undead enemies causes them damage due to them having a positive resistance value. Most units in the game are set to -100% (Absorb), which causes Restorative magic to heal them. The standard lines of spells are the Cure and Revive lines, with Regen offering a notable special case.

Restorative as an element cannot be resisted using any means. However, it is impacted by MBarrier status like any other damage, which reduces healing damage as well as normal damage. The Ziedrich, notable for protecting against nearly all damage types, does not reduce Restorative damage.

A physical damage type associated with blunt force trauma. It is the sole damage type for Aeris and Cait Sith's weaponry, the damage type for all but one of Red XIII's weapons, the primary damage type for Tifa's weaponry including all of her gloves and knuckles, two of Barret's weapons, and one of Cid's.

Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous.

As a physical damage type, it can be defended by pairing an Elemental Materia with a Materia which does not possess an element.

A physical damage type representing piercing attacks, as "to punch a hole." It is the primary damage type of Cid's weaponry, and both Barret and Tifa have three weapons which have it. In particular, it is used for Tifa's claw weapons.

Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous. However, some enemies, such as the Sahagin and Desert Sahagin are automatically hit by Punch attacks, with no chance to evade.

As a physical damage type, it can be defended by pairing an Elemental Materia with a Materia which does not possess an element.

A physical damage type associated with ranged attacks, and closely linked to the Long Range property. It is the sole damage type for all of Vincent and Yuffie's weaponry, the primary damage type of Barret's, and is possessed by one of Red XIII's.

Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous. However, the strong connection between Shoot and Long Range make this damage type particularly useful for the party, as it allows party members to attack with the same damage from the back row and to hit out-of-reach enemies.

As a physical damage type, it can be defended by pairing an Elemental Materia with a Materia which does not possess an element.

The final physical damage type, which represents sonic attacks, though most of these have energy-like animations. Notable examples include Cloud's Blade Beam Limit Break and Ruby Weapon's Ruby Ray. Despite Cait Sith using Megaphones, they actually do not deal this damage type, as the attack comes from punching on command for Hit damage rather than attacking the enemy with the sound.

Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous.

As a physical damage type, it can be defended by pairing an Elemental Materia with a Materia which does not possess an element.

Never officially named, and also referred to as the "10th Element," it makes its debut and only appearance in Final Fantasy VII. While the original Japanese version had several enemy attacks which used it, later versions reassigned the elements for all of them that do damage, with the notable exception of Ultimate Weapon'sUltima Beam. Aeris's Limit Breaks also use it.

The element can be defended by pairing an Elemental Materia with a Materia which does not possess an element, similar to the physical damage types. Unlike the physical damage types, the Ziedrich does not protect against it.

Some enemies also have an "elemental" weakness to non-elemental effects, specifically status effects. Attacks utilizing these statuses will behave just like an elemental effect in these cases, even if the enemy is immune to the status. These have no bearing on the party.